Sunday, February 21, 2016

How did you react to the appointment of a Minister for Happiness in the UAE?

I chuckled. My initial reaction was that the appointment
didn’t seem to be the kind of thing that should be taken seriously. But I wondered
what the motives of the UAE government might be.

Some commentators have suggested that the appointment of a
Minister for Happiness in the UAE was Orwellian. That sent me looking to see
whether Orwell had a Ministry of Happiness in Nineteen Eighty-Four. He didn’t. He had ministries of love, peace,
plenty and truth. The distinguishing characteristic of each those ministries
was the pursuit of policies that were the opposite of what was implied by the
label. For example, the Ministry of Love pursued enforced loyalty to Big
Brother through policies of fear and repression.

If North Korea establishes a Minister for Happiness it would
be reasonable to presume an Orwellian motive, but I doubt that applies to the
UAE.

I am not sure that the Orwellian motive even applies to the
establishment of a Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness by president Nicolas
Maduro of Venezuela in 2013. His motive was probably to distract people from the
decline in their economic well-being, occurring even then as a consequence of
the government’s economic mismanagement. It is unlikely that the Ministry is
helping people to feel any less miserable as the Venezuelan economy now collapses around them, with falling crude oil prices adding to their woes.

Given the fall in oil prices over the last year, the
distraction motive might also help to explain the appointment of a happiness
minister in the UAE. The IMF has reduced its growth forecasts for the UAE, even
though it is more diversified than many other oil-producing countries in the
Middle East. The fall in oil prices is causing fiscal deficits to rise and the
government is responding by reigning in government spending. The flow-on
effects of this might make life more difficult for the large expatriate
community (83.5% of the population) most of whom are from South Asia.

In announcing the appointment of a minister for happiness, the
UAE prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, claimed that the
objective was to "align and drive government policy to create social good
and satisfaction". The appointed minister, Ahood Al Roumi, was previously Director-General
of the prime minister’s department and will apparently retain that position.

The appointment is part of a government shake-up involving
appointment of more young ministers and more females. Women now make up more than one-third of all ministers in the government. The government of the UAE
has previously announced the vision for their country to be among the best in
the world in the Human Development Index HDI and to be “the happiest of all nations”. The UAE currently ranks 41st of the 188 countries included in the HDI.

It is tempting to dismiss all that as window dressing, but
there is a chance that the government of the UAE is actually trying to find a
way forward toward a better society. In terms of the “good society” indicators
I used in Free to Flourish there is a
lot of room for improvement in the UAE, even though it stacks up better
than a lot of other countries. Of the 110 countries included in the analysis, the
UAE ranks 39th in terms of peacefulness, 24th in terms of
opportunity and 17th in terms of economic security.

It will be interesting to observe whether Ahood Al Roumi attempts
to use her new role to make the UAE a better society.

3 comments:

Procrustes
said...

Winton

I wouldn't mind if any government appointed a Minister for the Pursuit of Happiness, but the idea of a Minister fills me with dread. I think Layard's book on happiness suggested banning half of advertising, because that makes for envy and thence unhappiness. He'd make a good Minister for Happiness and a terrible Minister for the Pursuit of Happiness

Procrustes, I think I understand your position. Having a happiness minister would be even worse than having a health minister who decided to take responsibility for our health. I would certainly not advocate such a position for Australia.

However, I think there is a possibility that this could possibly be a good move in the UAE, given the present context of that society. At least, I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Emancipation

Welcome!

Welcome to Freedom and Flourishing. While you are here, why not take a look around and leave some comments.

There is a list of my most popular posts below. I am pleased that a post about characteristics of a good society, that I wrote in 2009, is still one of the most popular. That post captures some of the ideas about freedom and individual human flourishing that I think are most important.